Originally Posted By SuzieQ ^So did I! And I was disappointed when Willard's Whizzer was pulled out. I was so disappointed in the park about 4 or 5 years ago, I haven't gone back. I do agree that Discovery Kingdom looks great! I hadn't gone in 3 years because it was deteriorating, but went this summer. The change is impressive! Now, Six Flags just needs to figure out how to do food service. 45 minutes to help 6 people with hot dogs and pizza is horrid!
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA ^^^We observed many of the food service personnel at Great America were very, very slow. Not rude, or 'over it' -- just physically slow. Like they weren't really equipped to go any faster. This one older woman was making garlic fries, and she really seemed to be struggling with just using tongs to place them into the fries container. And just generally understaffed.
Originally Posted By retlawfan Oh, where to start on this topic… As a former “Cast Member†of Great America, it does make me sad to see this formerly wonderful park deteriorate. My last visit to GA was a couple of years ago, and I was quite disappointed then. Although Paramount bought the parks, I think they mostly kept the KECO people (the previous ownership group) in place, since they didn’t really have any theme park experience themselves. Slap some Paramount names on the place and add the Klingons and you’ve got a whole new park. Easy. Well, not quite. At Great America especially, the trend really moved towards low cost and high thrills, regardless of appearance. In the process, the themes simply didn’t matter anymore. The “lands†didn’t matter anymore. Since the train cost so much to maintain, and it’s tracks were where they wanted to place a coaster, it got removed. Since the train was removed, they no longer needed the berm behind the entrance plaza for the station, so it was removed. Now the very specifically designed entrance plaza with the double decker carousel looks lousy. I agree that part of the problem is that they are land locked. There is nowhere to expand because they have sold off so much of the surrounding areas at what seemed like good profits at the time (Boy, were they wrong). They only way to add new attractions is to remove existing ones. And, since everything now is so large, sometimes more that one older attraction needs to be removed. That’s also how something like the new Survivor ride got put where it did. That’s the only place they could remove something (an old restaurant and maybe the picnic grove?) and make it fit. Some of my favorites? Orleans Orbit for sure. It almost was removed. I think it had been closed during the 2006 season with a sign up that said something about a new attraction coming. Luckily, Cedar Fair kept it when they bought the place. The Demon was my first BIG coaster. I think I was about 10 my first time on it. The Triple Wheel was another favorite of mine. It was kind of like the Peoplemover in that the ride took a long time, and was a good place to rest your feet on a long day. Too bad that it too was removed. And of course, the railroad. I was so sad to hear of this being removed. It’s removal was during a time when the park’s general manager, Gayle Ando, was a lady who came out of the merchandise department. Her background was sales, not show. It’s funny to read the comparisons to SF Discovery Kingdom. I just took the family there this last weekend. I thought the place was very disorganized. From layout of the park, and the maps to food service, I wasn’t too impressed. If this park is much better than Great America, I don’t know if I ever want to go back again. OK, I probably will. The same way you look at the car crash to see how bad it is… The sad part is this park holds such an important place in my heart. This is where I not only worked for 5 years and met some great people, but I also met my wife. She was a shows hostess (I don’t think they even have any of them anymore) and I was in security. I can honestly say that was the best job I ever had. I got paid to hang out in an amusement park. I got admission to all of the concerts (I was working, of course), and got to see all of the fireworks shows up close (I was the one directly under the big booms with the fire extinguisher). I do miss those days.
Originally Posted By SuzieQ Since they added the water park, I doubt I'll ever go back. Who wants to sit in a coaster seat with a puddle in the bottom from a wet bathing suit?
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Mr. X, our son in law was in Vanguard about 10 years ago He had great memories and goes back every year to watch them. Back to topic
Originally Posted By juicer I too have fond memories of Marriots Great America in the early years - My best memory is after having a wonderfull day hearing the "carousel song" at park closing
Originally Posted By juicer Oh...and seeing the corny can can show at the youkon food place near the log ride (sorry for the typo's)
Originally Posted By jonvn "Who wants to sit in a coaster seat with a puddle in the bottom from a wet bathing suit?" Better that than some other kind of puddle.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>And just generally understaffed.<< This happened even back when I was there. At the end of the summer, they lose a huge percentage of their employees who return to school. Plus, they go to weekends-only operation at that point, so even those who stay suddenly are making much less than the 40 hours+ they had been getting in the summer. Marriott used to work with some government agency back then to find workers, and a lot of them were kinda scary folks. I can tell you that it was odd, as an 17 year old, to be in a supervisor position over someone who was in their late 40's and looked like they'd done some hard living. Employees who committed to staying through the end of the season did get a little pay raise in Sept. and Oct. if memory serves. >>The sad part is this park holds such an important place in my heart. This is where I not only worked for 5 years and met some great people, but I also met my wife. She was a shows hostess (I don’t think they even have any of them anymore) and I was in security.<< My wife and I met there as well (we both worked in Foods)! Who knew Great America was an amusement park version of e-Harmony? ; )
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>My best memory is after having a wonderfull day hearing the "carousel song" at park closing << Me too! I have tried to find that song, I can't find it anyplace. : (
Originally Posted By Lisann22 My favorite spot in Great America was the Root Beer Saloon. Kar2oonman knows the name of it. We could sling back root beers for .5 cents. We used to have a blast in there.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan The Hot Shoppe! It was the original Marriott business, and they built a recreation of it at the park. And you'd get a big mug of root beer for 5¢ and they'd slide it down the long wooden bar to stop in front of you.
Originally Posted By jonvn "My wife and I met there as well " Funny, I met your wife there, too. But aside from that, I think the hot shoppe is now a video arcade. The saddest thing I saw was the boarded up Imax theater. Just sitting there rotting. SOmeone said Discovery Kingdom was not very good, I really have to disagree. It's about 100 acres in size, it is huge. It's laid out a bit odd, yes, but it really is a very nice place to visit. Gilroy Gardens is also a nice place, but it's a bit dull. The gardens there really are quite nice.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <The saddest thing I saw was the boarded up Imax theater. Just sitting there rotting.> Where is it located? I didn't see any buildings that big.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >> The saddest thing I saw was the boarded up Imax theater. Just sitting there rotting. << Pictorium is gone? Wow!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Anyone for red, white and blueberry ice cream? A great way to end the day at "Mariotts"
